amazed the Colonel to have Huston disagree with him. Huston began to take delight in saying "No." Some- times, in the course of a long dialogue with the Colonel, every sentence of Huston's would be "No." On other occasions, before Ruppert had said a word, Huston would open the con- versation with a ringing "No," just to remind the Colonel that there would be two sides to any question that might come up. Both Huston and Ruppert had pledged themselves not to interfere with the manager of their baseball team. Huston violated the agreement by purchasing an Indian chief named Dan Tipple and adding him to the pitching staff. Huston's stubborn faith in the Indian caused the Yankees to lose game after game. The Dan Tipple affair made Colonel Ruppert the domi- nant partner for a long time. Huston could always be silenced by "What? After Dan Tipple ? You still claim to know something about baseball?" Later, Colonel Ruppert became con- ceited over his skill in judging players, stuck his finger in the management, and foisted a pitcher named Cliff Markle on the team. After a dazzling start, Markle became one of the most consistent losers in baseball, and Huston became the dominant partner. Colonel Ruppert's self-respect would vanish for days after the name of Markle had been mentioned in his presence. Partly to avoid hearing the sound of "No" and "Markle," Colonel Ruppert bought out his partner seven years ago. The Colonel is a hobbyist and col- lector. His Fifth A venue apartment and his country home at Garrison, N. Y., overflow with jades and Chinese porcelains. He formed a library of fi fteen hundred magnificent bindings vvith reading matter inside, but sold the collection in 1920, after he had lost one million dollars in saloon mortgages rendered value- less by prohibition. He was a leading breeder of Saint Bernards for years, but sold his kennels because his love of dogs was threat- ening to interfere with his duties at the brewery. At his home at Garrison, he possesses America's finest collection of small mon- keys. Another man might have started with chimpan- zees, baboons, and orang- outangs; but it is the Col- onel's way to start at the bottom and build up: by THE NEW YORKER 1940, he will have a platoon of goril- las. The prize of all the Colonel's col- lections is Babe Ruth. The fact that the Babe is a Ruppert item distends the Colonel with pride. The brewer loses his highly tenacious business judgment in the presence of Ruth. In the annual salary crisis, Ruth can always boost his price five or ten' thousand dol- lars by a five-minute conversation with the Colonel. Other Yankee stars are also able to cause a temporary money blindness in the magnate. "It is this way," Joe Dugan, former third base- man of the Yankees, eXplained it. CÇThey offered me a fat contract, a swell contract. But why should I sign it when, by talking three minutes with Uncle Jake, I can get fi ve hundred dol- lars more?" Uncle Jake is popular with his ballplayers. As a sort of testimonial of affection, the Yanks, after beating St. Louis in the World's Series in 1928, invaded the Colonel's private car on the return trip from St. Louis and tore off his shirt-a tribute that would never have been paid to any ordinary club- owner. W HEN he was twenty-two years old, Ruppert became a colonel on the staff of Governor Hill. That was in 1889, but Ruppert's beer was im- portant in politics even then. In order to recognize the part that Ruppert's had played in many a hard-fought elec- tion, Richard Croker caused Jake to be nominated on September 30, 1897, for the office of President of the Coun- cil, or Vice-Mayor, which has since been abolished. With his usual wisdom or luck, the Colonel declined the honor. Had he been elected, he would have been a member of Van Wyck's ad- ministration, the worst in the entire $.;;';:;: ; ;M::;';"::;: [:: 1f;':?:::if:{:"",:::;:' ;;i :",::,::::: :L1 :W!?: :->> :..:; ::::::'_.:..':::::'-:::':::::::::'::::: i; t -i:r::;: : : : :: :f:::::':' : : :; \. i;<'. I :,,""-..:' ." ... :r :1illitQ;: ,-::. ::1=::"O :::f}=fu:-. : X':-:-'.:-:':':-;.: ;;:;::::::::::.... .:.:::::::=:';:::::::;:::::: ::'::::::.: i; ';:à 4f:v\ ' : >>..." ,... , _,{; ,..' r:"': " 'X::\:i :!i:::::: '^..,,':" ':':''f, '::' " J ,:( ' ,'\ .'.;,.... . "."" , .." 'yW "'>.. @ ' t, , .. fll!Mj V'; Fm :' "i t 1 { >Y t, 't.. .J:> ':'17!\ :,,:, 1;'.'.."" SMALL FR.Y The standup zn the park 23 period between Tweed and Walker. In 1899, Tammany sent Colonel Rup- pert to Congress, where he served four terms. In 1925, he was honored by the Board of Aldermen, which named a street R:uppert, after eloquent speeches on the decisive part played by Ruppert's in many a political campaign. Vlhen he was twenty-three years old, the Colonel started on his thirty- year career as a first-nighter. "T rilbx" and "Madame X" were the greatest shows of his time, he gays. At about twenty-thr,ee years, the Colonel also started on his career as one of the town's most eligible bachelors. By care- ful investment, he has steadily increased in eligibility ever since. It is asserted that the Colonel today controls more ready money than any other man in New York. During his life, the Colonel's eligibility has received only two set- backs. Prohibition cost him several mil- lion dollars, and during the height of the Florida boom he started to d velop Ruppert Beach, a ten-thousand-acre tract near Tampa. He owns ten thou- sand acres of alligators and seagulls now. A morbid respect for law is one of the Colonel's traits. He has not been arrested since 1902, when he and hIs fellow-congressman, O. H. P. Bel- mont, were nabbed while making seventeen miles an hour in an auto- mobile on Pennsylvania Avenue in \Vashington. A quarter of a century ago, one of Governor Charles Evans Hughes' speeches against race-track gambling preyed on the Colonel's con- science until he sold out his stable of running horses. The Colonel's defer- ence to the Volstead Act has been al- most psychiatric. He never lets a gill of real beer get out of his brewery. In spite of the perfection of his law observance, Ruppert has been a great target for the dry propagandists and the dry agents. His trucks have been seized, millions of gallons of his strict- ly legal beer have been taken, and his plan t has been infested by the federals. f\ big bootleg brewery a few blocks away is defended by cops, protected by the courts, ignored by the federal agents, while Ruppert's is constantly persecuted. But it has been the history of the past twelve years that the drys always persecute their friends. Ruppert has been one of the greatest assets of the drys. He accepted prohibition in the most docile spirit. He produced a near- beer that approached palatableness and did his best to reconcile the public to the Volstead Act. He never raised a